ducky house

2014 - hello world, I'm back... I think.

I can't promise in what capacity but I am here today and that is an excellent start. So where have I been for almost the past year? Well, I've been here at home, just not online in this space. 

Nothing tragic or dramatic happened, just life getting in the way and me being a practical girl, something had to give. 

Last year around the same time as my last post, the family computer died and since necessity is the mother of invention I gave my Mac *sniffle, over to the kidlets for their needs. This was a scary adventure in sharing, but ever so needed. After all, minecraft can't be put off!!

I also gave them my creative space as I wasn't getting much done in that arena due to ongoing house projects & exhaustion from a low iron health problem that my doctor and I were having a difficult time getting on top of. I'm pretty sure working two part time jobs while continuing to homeschool my crew, didn't help said iron troubles. 

So how are things today? For me personally I have been slowly building my iron levels back up and am starting to see a resemblance of my old-self and I'm feeling those crafty urges again.

On the job front, I have resigned from my part time jobs and am now currently unemployed as of mid-December 2013. I admit I feel the odd pang of worry about not working but with homeschooling the crew I think it might be for the best for our family, for now. 

As for computer sharing, after months of research and deliberations we finally decided to purchase a (couple of) gaming pc's for the kids. It was hard to go back to the pc world, as we are mainly apple-friendly, however we just felt that Mac products were a waste for what our kids' computer use (school & minecraft). So, under the Christmas tree last month sat a couple of extra special "shared" gifts that the kidlets were so patiently waiting for. Of course I now have my Mac back, which appears to be working fine.

Fyi, the photos in this post are from my instagram account. One photo for each month. If you want to see more, hop over to my instagram account - duckyhouse- to catch up on my life and of course you can always check out my flickr account. 

I suspect this blog will either undergo some physical changes in the near future or perhaps it will discombobulate and become something different all together. I haven't worked out those details yet and I'm sure there will be a learning curve along the way. For now lets leave this long post with a Happy New Year 2014 and next post will have details about the photo below  

 

weekend wip

I sewed something and it didn't have anything to do with pant hemming, jacket mending, buttons sewing, and mending, oops did I mention that already? there seems to be a lot of that going on this house.

We started a mudroom project last year that has been a lifesaver for all the jackets and shoe paraphernalia lying about. It isn't a big space but it does provide me that organization that I dream about - have you seen my pinterest account on mudrooms? 

The sewing portion of "project mudroom" is one of those little tasks that signifies completion of another area in our home. Yay! I need moments like these when I can cross another thing off my list. Some days those feel far and few between. 

I was thinking of writing up a tutorial for this little project but discovered a couple of well done tutorials already in existence so no point in re-inventing the wheel on this one. This is only a sneak peek so I'm leaving you hanging for the finished photo. I'm sure you will kill yourself with excitement waiting for the big reveal. Note: small font indicates that the big reveal is in fact no big deal but I'm dragging out the drama. Try to contain yourselves until I get back here okay? 

september/october highlights

Happy Be-lated Holidays and New Year!! I'm popping in to finish up my last update on our summer/fall happenings. I originallly started this post back in early December but then I got caught up in a whirlwind of activity and BAM, here it is the new year. How did that happen? 

A week after the big wedding we loaded up our minivan & small trailer and headed down south for 3 weeks. Destination: Walt Disney World Florida with a pit stop in Tennesee to drop my mum off for a visit with my sister - who had recently relocated with her family close to Nashville. 

Wow, let me say that again "WOW, what a drive". I should have ordered t-shirts that said "I survived 3 - 12 hour days of driving with 7 people in one vehicle". Now don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad roadtrip by any means. I just have pre-twins memory when we would make 3 or 4 long road trips per year into the US (the boys & us). Things seemed to be simpler and there were way less bathroom stops - lol! I guess it is pretty unreasonable to expect everyone to have "to go" at the same time but when you know you got a deadline you don't want to be stopping everyhour if you know what I mean. So as you can imagine after the first day this mumma got a little more militant and threw phrases around like: "you'll just have to hold it", etc.  Crazy I tell ya! 

By the end of the 3rd day we arrived in WDW late in the evening in time to crash into our beds. The next morning we woke up and headed out to the parks. We had a 10 day hopper pass including water parks & more. We couldn't have asked for better weather, in fact it was a tad bit too warm some days but I think that had more to do with the humidity - it was relentless. Side note: It feels a bit ridiculous writing those words right now as the local temperatures here are -17 celcius and I would love to be too warm ;) 

Well what can I say about WDW that hasn't been said. It was 29 years since I was last there and the rest of my family were first timers. We stayed on site at the All Star Music resort recommended by a couple different people - Krisite, a new bloggy friend who had recently taken her brood down there (and who happens to live in the same city/neighborhood) as myself and another friend who treks to WDW a few times a year (lucky/crazy duck - she lives in Louisiana so her trekking is a little easier). Another local friend of mine does the time-share thing with her family every Christmas at WDW so we had a plethora of helps and recommendations to make our trip great (and yes we did the dining plan). 

Some of our favourites were: Typhoon Lagoon - alas no pictures as we spent our time in the water doing the big wave, water slides and snorkeling. Our family favourite restaurant was Teppan Edo in Epcot and eating at Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom with the Winnie the Pooh Characters. The Haunted Mansion still remains one of my personal favourites. We really enjoyed the Hall of Presidents, American's really do a much better job with patriotism and honouring their past than us Canadians. We loved Animal Kingdom and didn't get enough time to see everything - we were supposed to go a second time on our last day but one of the girlies passed out in the hubby's arms and needed to sleep off her exhaustion. Miss Abby's personal favourite was Tom Sawyer's Island, I'm going out of my way to put that part in so I don't forget. I'm pretty sure there are more things I'm forgetting to add to this list but that'll have to do. 

After WDW we headed over to Universal Studios for a couple of days. I had a mission: to see Hogwarts. I have to admit that I was probably more excited than my kids at this point - big HP fan :)  The ride at Hogwarts was probably the best ride I've ever been on. I'm not much for roller coasters and turning upside down so for me the ride combination of virtual reality and movement was just perfect. We ate at 3 Broomsticks, tried butter beer and went to Honeyduke's Sweetshop. All in all it was a pretty satisfying experience and I did get the sweatshirt! 

The rest of Universal was just okay for us. We enjoyed the Indiana Jones show, Jurassic Park & the Spiderman rides. I think if you aren't a big roller coaster lover Universal Studios runs out of stimuli pretty fast. I'm glad we went because we had some great fun at a few attractions but overall I don't think we would visit it again if down in the area.

Okay, enough said I think that sums up our summer/fall: a relaxing summer, a big wedding, a family trip of a lifetime/road trip (next time we are flying), and since then we have settled into homeschooling and winter.  Now if you made it through this l-o-n-g post congratulations and thanks! Here's to hoping my next update will include something a wee bit crafty now that the days of being indoors have arrived. Woohoo, lets here it for winter **brrrr**

september celebration

I'm back with another update and this time I'm covering the earlier part of September and I have one word for you *wedding*

My niece decided to tie the knot with her secret highschool sweetheart. It was a big deal for our family since a) we haven't had a wedding in a while, b) it was my sister's only daughter, c) I've watched this girlie grow up from a wee girl to a big girl (insert 'where have the years gone' & tears), d) she was my flower girl some 19 years ago and e) my twin girlies were her flower girls. 

Well weddings along with being fun, require a fair amount of organizing & spiffing up as you can imagine. Thankfully my niece, my sister & bro-in-law took care of all the organizing and we as guests were left to making sure all were bathed and properly clothed for the event. My shopping started early when I found some awesome flower girl dresses in spring for my girlies which my niece approved of *sweet*. Buying early meant I didn't end up having to spend hundreds of $$ on their dresses later or panic that time was running out. Shoes on the other hand were a completely different story. I could not find anything suitable in this fair city of ours so I gave up and went to the internet where Zulily saved the day. After the girls were set to go I had to turn my focus to the two scraggly teens that seem to be growing faster than a golden retriever in his first year of life. Since dress pants & ties are not required homeschooling attire in our home, the boys needed the whole 9 yards, pants, shirt, ties, socks & shoes. I cut the fellows some slack and did not make them wear a full suit. As for the hubby, he was pretty good in the dress up department, though he did get a new shirt, tie and shoes. Me on the other hand, I needed a whole new ensemble. I went with an strapless formal gown, shoes, etc. Okay so the reason why I'm spilling all the details in print is because that's pretty much all you are going to get. Yes, I forgot to get a family photo (of us) except for a wee instagram shot on the way to the church in our chariot (minivan) *ugh* - you'll have to cut me some slack as I had more important things on my mind like making sure the girlies were good to go down the isle. Enough said, lets take a peek at the day's events starting with the rehearsal.

 

~ rehearsal night where the girlies get their walking practice.

~ on the way to the church, all dressed up and nary a picture to show - no I am not naked - remember strapless gown.

~ the girlies doing the stuff for real and doing a fabulous job at it

~ my niece and her daddy taking that walk

~ the bride - so beautiful

~ the happy couple cutting the fantastic cake my sister made! 

So ends the day and they begin their journey. I'm sure they will make a wonderful life together. I'll be back with an end of September/October update soon. xoxo

summer summary

Hello there, it's been awhile hasn't it? I mean - July to November - now that's just way too long for an update! So what on earth could have taken me away from this space all this time?? Life. I've embraced it and I've been busy in the thick of it, much like many of you I suppose (& to those that are able to keep up blogging along the way kudos to you).

As for me, my mojo for internet ramblings have up and left me right now, as have my crafty endeavors. I'm not fretting too much as I know things are cyclical. Overall I think I am more distressed that my craftyness is on the fritz as it is usually a huge energy booster for me. And couldn't we all use an extra boost of energy in our days? 

But lets not focus on that, I'm here today and I have a wee bit o' an update for ya. Our happenings were normal fodder for a family of 6 during the summer: 

~ bike riding continued on through the whole summer as a family 

~ and sometimes friends joined us

~ had a fight with the white cabbage butterfly and made decoys...

~ and bug juice - more likely salad dressing because I lost the fight and have no garden kale to speak of :( 

~ saw the local sights

~ hung out together at the pool

~ and by the fire

~ we baked apples

~ and then we baked  in the late summer heat

~ harvested vegetables and savoured their lovely taste and wished that the garden was bigger and the growing season was longer

So there we have it, all caught up with July & August for the most part. Watch for September's highlights, I promise it won't take 4 more months, lol.

beachin'

our province, home to over 100,000 lakes, we try to visit a few of them during the summer months: this particular visit took us out to where one of Canada's largest fresh water lakes resides, located in the interlake and one of my favourites with it's cool, ocean-like breeze

sand, sun, sit, swim, read, water, then do it all over again. it's a hard life. 

jamming

as in strawberry jam, not the music variety. 

It tastes as delicious as it looks, all 12 jars, and it is all freezer variety. Simple and easy as I am not able to do canning on my glass top stove. I did see one of these and I'm thinking it might be well worth the initial investment as nothing beats canning your own fruit. Or maybe it's time to invest in a new grill with a heavy duty burner for outside canning. hmm. 

My taste testers both gave me a thumbs up as they munch away on a loaf of fresh bread and strawberry goodness. Next up for freezer jam is the raspberries. Yum!!

strawberries anyone?

savouring a few more of those summer moments, the family went strawberry picking this week...

We: 

~ picked a bunch = 5 gallons; 

~ made 3 strawberry & rhubarb pies, delivering one to my sister whose kitchen is currently undergoing a major renovation; 

~ froze a ton for more strawberry & rhubarb pie because I did not think making 20 pies in one week and eating them all would be such a good idea for my waistline; 

~ will be making some strawberry jam as soon I get to the grocery store and replenish our sugar supply. 

~ and of course... ate a bunch, there is nothing like a fresh strawberry!

summer rituals and finding a new rhythym

we ride as a family almost every evening enjoying the trails. exploring new areas and paths being paved around our home. Our goal is to have some good ol' bike ride fun, but with that we find a common way to be together as family, a way to engage each of us.

I've been having a paralyzing fear of my kids growing up for the past while. It's happening right before my eyes and I can't seem to slow them down. I vacillate between my longing for those earlier years when days blurred into each other and it felt like those "baby-days" would never end and the reality of where we are today.The transition is both hard and wonderful as I watch my not so wee ones grow into strong, independent persons. My thoughts wander: where do I fit in now? is my job done?

Surely not with 7 year olds, teens & pre-teens still roaming the house. My role has simply changed and finding my groove is not so easy. Then again I am not alone, we are all changing. The eldest one is now a man cub, almost as tall as me at 5'10 ~ well maybe a few more inches to go. He has gone through the most transition this past year. His interests have taken him away from his world of physical imagination play to more adult like mimicking and conversation. It's been expected but at the same time hard on the others. They long for their "leader" to play again like he did once before. To lead them on an adventure filled with magic, monsters and villans. I see their broken heart and it breaks mine. I feel sad for the ones left behind but recognize the inevitability of it. As the youngest of 13, I understand all to well being left behind while others move on, it's a lonely road.

This is where we are right now, navigating a new phase. We are still a family, changing and finding a new rhythym and new ways to express our togetherness. Hoping ultimately that we will embrace it with grace and enjoy the ride.

May/June happenings

Now that it is officially July I thought I'd post a few highlights from the past two months instagram style. 

from the top: 

~ dance recital for the girlies who played the part of orphans singing "it's a hard knock life (Annie)" *ps, they did not dance in the Crocs ;P

~ flowers from daddy for two girlies who did such a great job at their dance recital

~ mass organization of papers around the house, including 5 years of the girls' art work *big job

~ mushrooms along the path of our daily bike ride

~ lunch for me: sole on a bed of lettuce *yum